Calling the shots: Health Department administrator Howard McCane Jr. offers color commentary during high school football games in Mobile

Howard McCane Jr. in the press box at Saraland High School.

MOBILE, Ala. -- On week days, Howard McCane Jr. is an up-and-coming public health administrator responsible for several primary care divisions at MCHD’s downtown campus. But when the clinics close on Friday evenings, the bright lights from football stadiums across Mobile County beckon.

 

McCane pulls on a set of headphones and jumps into his job as a color commentator for high school matchups aired on local radio station WNSP. “It’s all about football,” he said of how he spends much of his weekends.

 

A native of Tuscaloosa, McCane moved to Mobile in 1996. In 2005, he came to work for the Mobile County Health Department as an Environmental Health Specialist, a job he held until July when he moved to an administrative position in the Primary Care Division. He earned a degree in chemistry from Alabama A&M University and a master’s in Public Administration from the University of South Alabama.  Now, he oversees departments including pediatrics, pediatric/adolescent, dental, optometry, a refugee program and outreach/wellness at the Health Department’s downtown campus.

 

“It has been an eye opening experience,” McCane said. “It’s been very challenging, but I believe it will be very rewarding.”

 

McCane said he got into radio on a lark. He was out washing his car one afternoon and listening to a sports station and he told his wife, Latitia, that he could offer commentary just as well as the guys on the radio. His wife challenged him to do it. That day, he called up the guys on the air and found out what he needed to do to get started. Turns out, he could do it after all. After two years as a field reporter for high school football, legendary local radio broadcaster Lee Shirvanian asked him to partner with him as a color analyst.

 

These days, McCane does color commentary on Friday nights, then heads to Ladd Stadium for USA home games on Saturdays. There he works for the IMG Network which broadcasts the Jaguars games. In that role, he typically stays quiet, acting as a spotter. Spotters usually sit between the commentators in the field box and use binoculars to see which players are involved in each down.  “We’re the ones who point out on the roster who did what,” McCane said. “That’s how they are able to easily tell who made a play.”

 

Sundays bring a morning radio show for WNSP featuring McCane and co-host Tim Finnegan. They talk fantasy football from 10 to 11 a.m., taking calls, texts and tweets. “We pretty much scour the internet looking for stories on players, and we talk about the ones we believe are the best and the worst ones to play that day,” McCane said. “Fantasy football is huge.”